passed, and she was full of exultation.

"`It is your turn now, you she-devil,' said I, in my rage; `but wait
till my father dies. You shall go a-milking again.'

"I do not mean to defend my conduct, but I was then not seventeen, and
that must be my excuse. I little thought, when I said so, that it would
be from my hands that she would have to receive bounty; but so it is, as
Mr Campbell informs me that my father destroyed, previous to his death,
the papers which he had signed to secure her a large jointure on the
estate. I set off with my wardrobe and the purse of twenty guineas,
which my father had given me, and, having a desire to see the world, I
went on board of a merchant vessel. Six months afterwards, when we were
at Liverpool, I went on board of a privateer. The remainder of my
history you are already acquainted with.

"As soon as she had wreaked her vengeance upon me, my brother Philip was
the next; but he was too young at that time to be turned adrift, so she
put it off till the time should come, irritating and weaning my father
from him by every means in her power. Three years afterwards she
succeeded in having him dismissed, also, and you know how I found him
out. All these circumstances were very well-known in the neighbourhood
and to our own relations; and one only, my aunt, called upon my father,
and, after a long conversation, my father consented that my sisters
should go away, and remain under her charge. My step-mother's violent
temper, her exactions, her imperious conduct, which was now shown even
towards him, with what my aunt had advanced, had to a certain extent
opened my father's eyes. He perceived that she had no other view but
her own aggrandisement, and that she cared little for him. Her repeated
attempts, however, to make him sign in her favour, in case of his death,
were successful, and it was not till after her conduct had alienated him
from her, and he deplored the loss of his children, that he committed
the deed to the flames. About three years after I had quitted the
house, my eldest brother, who had information of all that had passed,
and who remained in the army because he declared that he never would go
home till after his father's death, was killed by a cannon-ball; and my
second brother died of a fever about a year ago, when resident at the
court of a native prince. I had heard nothing of these deaths, or of my
father's, until my arrival in London; of course, I was most